Month: April 2011

Richmond, VA (April 19, 2011) – The fourth annual National Donor Designation Report Card prepared by Donate Life America shows 94.7 million people were enrolled in state donor registries at the end of 2010. This represents an increase of 36.5 percent since 2007—a triumph for the donation and transplant community.

Still, with more than 110,000 men, women and children on the national patient waiting list for organ transplants, the need for registered donors remains great. The public may designate their decision to donate life by accessing their state donor registry through www.donatelife.net.

Nationwide, 40 percent of people age 18 and older have registered as donors. Alaska and Montana top the list with a reported 76 percent each, followed by Utah and Washington both with 72 percent and Oregon with 71 percent.

Last year, of all recovered donors in the United States, 32.8 percent of organ, 42.2 percent of eye and 37.3 percent of tissue, were in their state donor registry at the time of death. These numbers have continued to rise since Donate Life America launched the Donor Designation Collaborative and began collecting this data.

Along with registering 100 million donors, another goal of Donate Life America is to achieve a 50 percent donor designation rate, the rate at which individuals join their state donor registry as a percentage of all driver’s licenses and ID cards issued within a specific period of time. Currently, 14 states have met or exceeded this goal, led by Alaska (76 percent), Colorado (65.6 percent) and Montana (63.2 percent).

Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia are noted as having effective registries. This recognition is achieved by meeting specific criteria including having passed state legislation that authorizes recovery agencies to honor a donor’s decision to make an anatomical gift with no further requirement for family authorization for organ, eye and tissue donation.